Industry-Academia Linkage In Pakistan, The Call Of The Time.

Industry-academia linkage (IAL) can be depicted as interactive, mutually inclusive goals and objectives oriented between industry and the academic world. The pillars of the academic world stand on creativity, philosophy, and theory, whereas the industry exists on prevalent commercially feasible ideas. Conversely, academia is software, and industry is hardware. To understand the gap better, suppose a professor has delivered thousands of lectures on swimming but never put his feet in the water till his retirement; he will always remain introverted and incomplete. So it's a matter of demand and supply gap between the industry and the academic world.

The curriculum is written decades ago, whereas industry moves on forward on a daily basis. In the modern world, market trends and the pace of the industry are far faster than before. This is why when an engineer enters a factory shop floor; he comes immediately to know that he does not practically understand many things...... paper out of syllabus...haha! The real second half of the learning journey stems from that point of an intellectual shock to an engineer. The industry-academia linkage (IAL) is indispensable for commercial organizations, educational institutions, and the nation as a whole. The industrial revolution was not possible without following this concept. The interaction must be reciprocal for conducting applied research. Sharing projects among the students is another dilemma. It's like four bed home shared by four people without any acknowledgment of the one's bed. Engineers have to study 18 hours to get admission to reputed universities, but after admission, they are not cerebrally grilled like medical and accountancy students are done. The labs of the majority of technical institutions are outdated, without calibrations, and crippled. The universities don't have in-house shops as medical colleges have in-house training facilities.

Pakistan is not much different from other South Asian countries in facing the ill effects of this gap. The gap between technology and curriculum is long-standing, especially in the third world. A year ago, Pakistan was rated 99th among the 132 economies in the Global Innovation Index in 2021. Pakistan's position of 134th out of 157 countries in the Human Capital Index is mocking us. Students don't have enough facilities to consume time on factories' floors. Resultantly, overseas organizations expect the students seeking admission to endorse their education...